I went home for the weekend. It was my mom's 57th birthday, so we had lunch at my grandparents' house with two uncles, an aunt, and a cousin.
My cousin is nine years old, and due to the complete incompetence of his parents, he is the most horrible spoiled brat I have ever met in my whole entire life.
Probably the worst thing he does is hit his parents when they don't do what he wants. He will also shush everyone in the room so that he can tell some stupid little kid story. He also tells our grandmother that whatever she is serving us is dusgusting (because he thinks it's funny to say something different from what everybody else says). His parents don't say anything about any of this.
What disgusts me the most is his sense of entitlement. Our grandmother asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and he rolled his eyes and started rattling off his wish list, which was not short and had some pretty pricey items on it. It was as if he were annoyed that he even had to ask for all these things. His parents should just write it all down and pass out a copy of the list to everyone in the family, so he doesn't have to be troubled with telling everyone what he wants.
My mom sometimes has him spend the night at her house so that they can have "heart-to-hearts." And although he loves staying with my mom, I can only assume that it's because of the dogs. God knows he rarely takes my mother's advice, at least around his parents.
But maybe he really does enjoy his talks with my mother. Maybe being such an ungodly brat all the time is tiring, and he enjoys the break. Or maybe he realizes how horrible he is most of the time, and his talks with my mother give him hope that he can change.